


Of Redemptive Heroes and Family Values Villains

by Kizmet



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony Stark Defense Squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-01-07 00:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12221817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kizmet/pseuds/Kizmet
Summary: Why exactly is Tony Stark a redemptive hero?  Watching how he's treated by his fellow Avengers you'd think being a former military contractor is a sin far in excess of being former terrorist, a former assassin, a former war-mongering prince, but that can't possibly be right.And the Vulture's operation of making weapons for criminals, only in looney-ville would that be considered no different from making weapons for a legitimate government, right?





	1. Of Redemptive Heroes and Family Values Villains

**Author's Note:**

> This one started with me making the mistake of reading one of those ridiculous “Tony Stark is the real villain of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’” reviews and was finished in bits and pieces, usually when I was in a too Steve-Unfriendly mood to write “Two Steps Behind”.

Tony stepped out of his car into a sea of microphones. Their shouted questions ran over one another as they all vied for his attention. “Mr. Stark!” “Mr. Stark!” “Have you been following Adrian Toomes’ trial?” “Do you have a response to his accusations?”

Christine Everhart’s voice caught his ear and he turned toward, “Really Brown? You’re asking that? And I thought you were smart. How slow of a News day is it?”

“Some of my viewers don’t think it’s a stupid question,” Christine replied. “So why don’t you explain: How is what he was doing any different than what you were doing before shutting down Stark Industries’ weapons division? Only you got rich and he’s going to jail.”

Tony sighed, “You know defending my former profession isn’t exactly high on my to-do list… But do any of you actually understand what I was doing wrong back then? What I was trying to fix by becoming Iron Man? Come on! I know it was a long time ago but more than a few of you were in the room when I told the world that I had seen SI weapons in the hands of terrorists, did you forget that?”

“Yes, Mr. Toomes also made weapons that have harmed the public.”

“Straight back from Afghanistan I didn’t know how my weapons ended up being used to kill US troops. You asked me once, Brown, how often I practiced SI’s party line justifying making weapons? Here’s a hint: I lied. It was a line, a way to work my bed into the conversation. Because you in my bed was all I was really interested in discussing. I never had to practice it. It was what I was raised to believe just like my mom tried to raise me to believe ‘For God so loved the world’ and all that. I never practiced that line. I never questioned whether or not it true. The truth is I never thought about it at all… Until I saw the very people I’d been raised to believe I was protecting die right in front of me, killed by weapons my company had made. It was a fucking crisis of faith. I didn’t know how my weapons ended up in the hands of people like Ten Rings. Mil-Aerospace is a regulated industry, there was supposed to be a system in place to keep things like that from happening. I thought the system had failed.

“I came back from Afghanistan believing that once I let a weapon out of my hands, that I had no control over what happened with it. I came back believing that the whole system put into place to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists was hopelessly flawed. When I stood up here and talked about not wanting to be a part of a zero accountability system, that was what I was thinking. But it wouldn’t be long before I’d learn the problem was little closer to home for me.”

“Are you referring to subsequent investigation into Stark Industries business practices?” Christine asked. “The one where you were personally cleared of any wrongdoing?”

“Yeah. Like I said, making weapons is a regulated industry for the specific purpose of keeping weapons out of the hands of people like the Ten Rings. So it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that, after I publicly announced that my company’s weapons were being used by terrorists, the government opened an investigation of Stark Industries.

“Let me be clear. There was never a legal question around SI’s manufacturing of weapons. I, personally, had some ethical questions about it after getting a first person perspective on what my weapons do to a human body but no one ever questioned whether or not SI was a legal manufacturer of arms for the U.S. military. That I was the one to draw attention to my company’s weapons getting into the hands of terrorists was considered evidence that I hadn’t known about the deals upfront. However, it didn’t even begin to answer the question of whether or not I should have been held legally responsible for failing in my professional responsibility to maintain adequate control over the weapons I built.”

“So one might ask if coming forward was a ploy to keep yourself out of trouble?”

Tony rolled his eyes, “If that was my end game I never would have gotten out of the arms business. Much as we might want to believe justice is blind everyone knows influence exists. Whatever your personal opinion of me is, it’s simple fact that I’m damn good at what I do. Telling the military that, no matter what the outcome of the investigation into Stark Industries, they weren’t getting any more toys from me was basically the opposite of weighting things in my favor.

“The conclusion of the investigation, if anyone cares, was that my XO, Obadiah Stane was selling Stark Tech to the black market behind my back. Due to his roughly forty years of employment with Stark Industries, including several years as CEO immediately following my father’s death, not to mention his extensive personal history with my family, it was decided that I could not be held legally liable for trusting him. Didn't change how I felt personally. I felt like I should have figured out what kind of a man my godfather was without needing to have my eyes opened by him attempting to murder me.

“I also felt that it shouldn't have taken getting a chest full of shrapnel from one of my own weapons for it to really sink in that I spent my life making things that exist to kill people. I grew up accepting the whole best defense is a good offense thing but that way of thinking ignores that someone, usually lots of someones, die when my weapons are put into use. After Afghanistan it stopped being good enough to think it was them and not us who died. I, personally, wanted out of a business built on dealing death. It didn't put an end to war or military actions and I never thought it would, even I don’t have that big of an ego. It was just me deciding that SI wouldn't be a part of it anymore, that I wouldn't build things for the purpose of killing anymore.”

“But SI is still a military contractor.”

“Yeah, I build armor for people and vehicles, defensive measures that work by, you know, defending things.

  
“Now, let’s talk about Adrian Toomes. He is not, and has never been, a legal supplier of arms to any government. I left the field wide open for competitors to swoop in and grab market share, hell even Justin Hammer got a piece of the pie I put back on the table and his products are crap, but Adrian Toomes lacked the basic ability to become a legitimate military contractor.”

“From where I’m standing, seems he was pretty good at making weapons well beyond anything possessed by the police or military.”

“Ever since the U.S. military put Steve Rogers to work for the USO, then the SSR once they realized that they couldn’t prevent him from going into the field, it’s been the military’s policy not to put one-offs in critical positions within their structure. Even Rhodey was moved into supporting role in a separate command structure when I gave him War Machine-

“Iron Patriot,” someone in the audience corrected.

Tony wrinkled his nose and continued over them “-and he’s been theirs since he graduated high school and signed up for ROTC. No matter how powerful a one-off might be, the military wants weapons that can be mass produced and not tied to a specific individual who might go rogue. Phineas Mason is a great tinkerer, he draws a black box around a piece of Chitauri tech and figures out ins and outs, ‘If I do this, it does that’. He’s good, even great at that, but he doesn’t try to understand what’s inside that black box. His weapons are entirely dependent on components that he, and everyone else on Earth, are incapable of replicating. Which means he is very good at turning out weapons that no legal purchaser would want.

“I was investigated because my weapons ended up in the hands of terrorists. Adrian Toomes’ entire business model was based on creating one-off superweapons and selling them to criminals. Expert testimony from the NYCP says Toomes’ organization is responsible for arming nearly 85% of the Technologically Enhanced criminals apprehended in the last five years. If Obadiah Stane hadn’t died while trying to kill me he would have gone to jail, over a dozen of the key players in his operation of putting SI weapons on the black market are still in jail today.”

“It is Mr. Toomes contention that if SI’s subsidiary, Damage Control, hadn’t taken his business from him he wouldn’t have been forced into a life of crime to support his family.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “While Pepper disagrees with me, I am willing to allow that it’s my fault when someone goes full psychopath after I, personally, blow them off. But if every person who got out bid by SI on a business contract turned to crime… Excuse me, do we still live in a capitalist country?”

“And yet we also try to adhere to fair business practices.”

“So your problem is that I recommend that battle debris from the Chitauri Invasion, and other subsequent events, be handled as hazardous material on par with Nuclear materials? At least until a new classification could be devised because, frankly, we have a much better grasp of how to safely handle weaponized plutonium. And Toomes’ operation wasn’t capable of meeting those standards? Is that what you’re calling unfair?”

“Damage Control put him out of business.”

“So, you tell me: Did I make the wrong call? Kid sticks a Chitauri device in his backpack, the Washington Monument suffers severe damage. Criminals armed with Chitauri tech based weapons and we’ve got a ferry cut in half, buildings sliced through like butter. Was I wrong to say that the debris left behind by the Chitauri should be treated as highly dangerous?”

Tony waited several seconds. No one said anything. “No? I didn’t think so.”

“So, because we are talking about hazardous materials the government, oddly enough, likes to have certain assurances that these materials are being handled properly. Background checks.  Even Toomes' original crew wouldn’t have all passed them. Not my policy, the government’s policy about who should be put in the position of being tempted to, say, pick up an alien weapon and walk off the job with it in their back pocket.

“My hat’s off to Phineas Mason. Sincerely. Years messing around with Chitauri leavings and he didn’t blow up either himself or the city, that is a genuine accomplishment. And I’m the last person who’s going to say you need schooling to be a genius. School was, um, boring. But what a degree, a license or a professional registration does offer is proof of minimum competence. Oddly popular in a wide range of circles. Proof, not that you’re great, but that you’re competent. That’s why we all do it, to get that fancy piece of paper that says we proved ourselves capable of meeting the minimum standards of our profession.

“Toomes’ crew was qualified to salvage buildings ready for demolition, decommissioned manufacturing facilities, etc. They did not have the proper qualifications to disarm bombs, handle radioactive waste or potential biological hazards. They did not have the necessary proof to show that they could do the job safely, so they lost the job to someone who could. Really? Am I supposed to be sorry for hiring people with the proper credentials rather than expecting them to learn on the job? What was Toomes defense about the murder of his own lacky, Jackson Brice? He didn’t know what the weapon he picked up did? He picked up a gun, shot a guy with it and didn’t expect him to die. When I set up Damage Control, I did have a number of advantages over Adrian Toomes. Namely nearly two decades of personal experience in military contracting and a company with seventy years of history in the industry. I know the regulations. I know how to screen the people I hire to meet them. I know the industry best practices. I know how to set up processes that will pass a government audit. Strangely that sort of knowledge is considered an asset in getting a job that requires that knowledge.

“Adrian Toomes says I put him and his crew out of business but let’s talk about all the people hired by Damage Control. People who could offer proof, up front, that they were qualified to do the job and do it safely. People who were every bit as local to New York as Toomes’ crew, just… Not his crew.”

“Well you hardly need the money.”

“My employees do. And Damage Control is not a salvage company. I do not make money by studying or selling the Enhanced objects recovered by Damage Control. Battle debris recovered by Damage Control is placed in containment facilities to remove it from circulation because the government decided that they did not want items like the one that exploded at the Washington Monument, nearly killed a half-dozen high school students, including Toomes’ own daughter, in circulation. Damage Control breaks even by providing the service of cleaning up battle sites and securing any hazardous materials. A salvage company, like Adrian Toomes’ business, turns a profit by reselling what they recover from a deconstruction site. Toomes lost his contract because his company’s business model, then and now, was to make a profit by putting what they recovered back into circulation. And no one in their right minds wanted Chitauri weapons back in circulation.

“At my worst, I believed that adherence to the law, with no examination of my impact on the world, was sufficient. So excuse me if I have a little trouble understanding this new morality were looking out for your own; your friends, your family; has been elevated to a cardinal virtue which justifies harming innocent bystanders who just happened to be in your way and places you above the law for all practical purposes.”


	2. Rogue Response

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I found this half finished and abandoned on my hard drive, rewrote a few bits to take BP and the trailers for Ant-Man and IW into account and finished it up.

After the Accords had broken the Avengers apart- After Bucky had chosen Cryofreeze under T’Challa’s protection in Wakanda- After Steve and Natasha had managed to rescue their teammates from the Raft- Well, T’Challa had been less welcoming than Siberia had given Steve cause to expect. He’d sat them down and explained that, while he wasn’t rescinding his earlier offer of sanctuary, it had only ever been extended to Bucky. “Wakanda has been isolationist for many, many years. The deaths of our countrymen in Lagos was a shock that served to reinforce our worst opinions of outsiders. I am pushing to complete the independent investigation of the incident initially demanded by Dr. Stark and to ensure that blame for the tragedy is properly assigned,” T’Challa assured them. “But until that investigation has been completed and you have been publicly cleared of responsibility for the deaths I cannot extend hospitality to you without alienating my people. I am pushing the independent investigation forward but given subsequent events most of the world, my advisors included, are more than ready assume your guilt.”

And so after the Raft break out T’Challa dropped them off in a remote corner of Eastern Europe.  He sent them on their way with excuses and weak regrets, “While Dr. Stark was initially a strong voice demanding an urgent, impartial investigation, facts to counter the sensationalism of the media, his attention has been redirected to the fight for necessary amendments to various sections of the Accords.” T’Challa didn’t say it but various news pundits had speculated that Tony Stark was less concerned with clearing his old teammates’ names than with making the Accords palatable to the new heroes he might be trying to recruit replace them. The amendments Tony was fighting to get pushed through were all ones Steve thoroughly approved of but the notion that Tony didn’t care about them anymore still rankled.

In the days and weeks that followed Steve and his remaining teammates frequently found themselves spending their evenings crowded around grainy TVs in a string of cheap hotel rooms in hopes of spotting a flashpoint that they could leverage into their triumphant return to glory. Instead they found themselves following the apparently unending coverage of Tony Stark. He was everywhere as the fallout from the Accords was assessed.

There were the claims and counterclaims between Secretary Ross and Tony about abuses of power and failure to adhere to the Accords which had come to nothing for both officially but which Tony had won in the eyes of the public. Ultimately Ross wasn't charged with anything because there was no proof that he hadn't intended to turn the Avengers apprehended at Leipzig over for trial and Ross had been able to levy Berlin into a justification for holding them in a facility designed specifically for containing Enhanced while they were processed. Proof or not most people weren't stupid enough to buy Ross's bullshit and the President had asked for Ross to recuse himself from all future involvement with the Accords to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Tony had come out clean, the public perception being that he’d done his best to compromise while between the rock of Thunderbolt Ross inserting himself into the Accords’ yet to be finalized command structure and the hard place of Captain America’s unwillingness to consider that oversight might be justified and necessary. “I was ready to compromise in Berlin!” Steve had protested. “Why doesn’t Tony tell them that! Why doesn’t he tell them I wasn’t in Vienna because of Peggy’s funeral?” Natasha had given him an unimpressed look, “When I asked you to go to Vienna, _after_ Peggy’s funeral, it sounded to me like you didn’t think there was anything more to discuss about the Accords.”

The pundits speculated about Tony’s appearing and disappearing sling, his age and the thin line of active Avengers left. “Looking for sympathy,” Clint snorted. But Steve had frowned, “We all know how Tony is about following doctor’s orders, he may have re-injured it pretending he was okay before it really healed.” Natasha nodded in agreement with Steve. “Pride.  He doesn’t want to admit he needs us,” she summarized.

Most recently Tony had been in the news because of the whole Vulture thing: Iron Man’s rescue of the ferry. “He should have had more back-up,” Steve worried. The attempted theft of SI/Avengers grade equipment. “Old projects or is he still designing things for us?” Clint had wondered. “Midair hijacking? Got to give the guy credit for balls if nothing else,” Scott had remarked. Tony giving statements on Spider-Man’s behalf. “Tony’s hiding something,” Natasha observed. And, of course, Adrian Toomes’ accusations.

A group of reporters cornered Tony as he left the UN building in New York after another Accords meeting and started demanding answers about Toomes. Steve was caught between remembering how much he hated it when reporters ambushed him like that and looking forward to hearing Tony’s unscripted responses to what Toomes had been saying.

Then Tony, in typical fashion, immediately veered off topic.

_“Here’s a hint: I lied. It was a line, a way to work my bed into the conversation. Because you in my bed was all I was really interested in discussing.”_

“She ought to slap him,” Steve observed, frowning.

“In my day sonny…” Clint whined in a falsely high and shaky voice as Scott whistled, “That’s the line he bagged her with? I guess anything works if you’ve got money.”

Steve’s pinched expression grew more severe at the realization that Tony had slept with the blonde reporter and apparently it was common knowledge. “She got her fifteen minutes of fame, and then some,” Natasha said. “For awhile it looked like she was going to be the last person he took to bed.”

_ “The truth is I never thought about it at all… Until I saw the very people I’d been raised to believe I was protecting die right in front of me, killed by weapons my company had made.” _

“Of course he never thought about it,” Wanda sniffed, “It wasn’t his parents murdered, his home destroyed. He lived in luxury purchased with our blood.”

Steve shifted uncomfortably at the mention of murdered parents. Natasha watched him with sharp eyes.

“You know,” Sam said glancing away from Wanda, “I was still in the military when Stark stopped manufacturing weapons. We called him a traitor, a disgrace to his father’s legacy.”

Wanda shook her head in denial, “But you were part of a rescue squadron! Why would you want someone like Stark making more weapons?”

“I was U.S. Airman,” Sam corrected. “Two tours of duty before joining the PJ’s. Not mention, a lot of the guys I was pulling out were military too, and some of them only needed rescue because they were forced to depend on substandard weaponry.”

“I have to wonder who Hammer had blackmail on to get those contracts,” Natasha commented.

Wanda stared at the two of them with revulsion. “You are no different from those who murdered my parents!” she exclaimed, withdrawing from the group, wisps of her power floating around her.

In response to the unspoken threat Natasha shifted subtly bringing her weapons closer to hand.

Clint went over an put a calming hand on Wanda’s shoulder as he glared at Natasha.

_ “The conclusion of the investigation, if anyone cares, was that my XO, Obadiah Stane was selling Stark Tech to the black market behind my back.” _

“I remember that,” Scott remarked. “Real convenient that Stane died before anyone could question him. I mean do we really know that Stark didn’t know what was going down? Maybe Afghanistan was just a falling out between thieves.”

“Of course it was,” Wanda muttered angrily.

Sam shook his head, “I don’t like Stark anymore than the next guy but that’s too conspiracy theory for me. Why would he have told them about the SI weapons if he was in on it?”

“Like the lady said: Throwing off suspicion.” Scott paused, “I don’t know, I guess even if Stark was in on it, having someone you’d known all your life stab you in the back- Fuck! Pay someone to murder you! That’s gotta be rough.”

“Afghanistan changed him,” Steve said as if coming to a decision in his own mind. “Tony didn’t have to shut down SI’s weapons department. He certainly didn’t have to go on being Iron Man after he’d escaped. Maybe it was motivated by guilt but it was a real change. I didn’t see anything to like about the guy I was shown in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files but it wasn’t flying the missile into the portal that changed my mind about him, that just changed all of us dying together to him risking dying on his own. What changed my mind was the helicarrier, he got yanked through that engine keeping it in the air when he could have just flown away. Whatever Tony was in the past, he’d changed and everyone deserves a second chance.”

Natasha rolled her eyes, “Stark wasn’t in on Stane’s under the table deals,” she stated, “He should have known what was going on beneath his nose but he didn’t.”

“Can’t really hold not knowing against him after everything with S.H.I.E.L.DRA,” Sam remarked.

“That was different,” Natasha snapped. “It was HYDRA.” Her eyes flashed dangerously and Sam held up his hands in surrender.

Steve nodded. _‘Tony should have known what was happening in his own company. But if Fury- If Peggy! -didn't know about HYDRA infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. that was on HYDRA.’_

_ “It didn't put an end to war or military actions and I never thought it would, even I don’t have that big of an ego.” _

Without really thinking about it Scott and Sam nodded in agreement.

Wanda sniffed and turned away from the screen.

“Like I buy that,” Clint sneered. “I bet Stark was dumbfounded when the whole US Military Complex didn’t collapse into a black hole and suck up all the rest of the world’s militaries the moment he pulled out. I bet he was just waiting for something like that Congressional Hearing, for the government to come crawling back begging him for more, bet it was a real stroke for his ego.”

Natasha grimaced, “Maybe lay off on Stark’s ego,” she said to herself. “He’s developing a tolerance.”

_“Adrian Toomes lacked the basic ability to become a legitimate military contractor.”_

“Toomes was just a little guy, trying to run a business,” Steve said.

“Toomes wasn’t qualified,” Scott argued, surprising both himself and Steve.

Steve frowned disapprovingly. “They said I wasn’t qualified to be a soldier,” he reproved Scott.

“I spent five years in college getting an engineering degree then I spent the next couple of years after that paying off my college debt,” Scott met Steve’s disapproval with a stubborn set to his jaw. “I didn’t do that so some guy who hadn’t bothered could have the chance to blow up half of New York while he figured out on the job what I’d studied.”

“Arms merchants,” Wanda muttered under her breath. “They should all be killed, hung from their guts and left to die slowly.” Scott and Sam edged away from her warily.

“You’re just upset,” Steve said, patting Wanda on the shoulder. “I know you don’t really mean that. You’re a good girl.”

_ “The military wants weapons that can be mass produced and not tied to a specific individual who might go rogue.” _

“They want control. They’re afraid of anyone who might challenge their agendas,” Steve said with a stern frown.

The others all nodded sagely.

Wanda shrugged off Steve’s hand and stood up. “You’re right. We should have the power,” she said smiling. “We are better than all of those stupid, small-minded people. They should be begging us to rule them instead of judging us.”

“How long was she with HYDRA?” Scott whispered to Sam as he shifted to put the other man between himself and Wanda.

Clint glared darkly at Scott.

“She was just a kid,” Sam whispered back. “It’s not her fault if she picked up a little indoctrination.” Clint and Steve cast black looks at Tony’s image on the TV screen. Natasha just grimaced.

_ “Was I wrong to say that the debris left behind by the Chitauri should be treated as highly dangerous?” _

“Fear-mongering,” Steve said. “He’s telling them that they’re right to be afraid of people like us.”

Scott pointed at Natasha, “Isn’t that the same thing she did after you guys dropped a bunch of Helicarriers on DC? Didn’t she basically tell the Senate that they couldn’t arrest her because the world was a dangerous place and if they ticked you guys off you might not save them next time?”

“If we hadn’t destroyed the carriers-” Steve began as Natasha protested, “I didn’t say that! I said if they arrested us we wouldn’t be _around_ to save them.”

“I’m not really in a mood to save any of those assholes who threw me in the Raft,” Clint snorted. “I wouldn’t spit on Stark if he were on fire let alone run to his rescue.”

“You don’t mean that,” Steve exclaimed.

“Hell if I don’t! Because of him I can’t see my family and he had the gall to blame me for leaving them!” Clint ranted. “If not for him there wouldn’t have been a need for me to come. Those assclown in the UN can talk all they like but without an enforcer like Stark on their side what could they do to us? NOTHING! Without Stark they were just a bunch of stuffed shirts, worthless, powerless. The UN could yammer on all day and all night about their stupid Accords and we’d just keeping on doing our jobs and they wouldn’t have dared try to get in our way. Not after you and Barnes showed the whole world that their soldiers were just a bunch of yapping dogs. Like Nat said back in DC: They don’t dare arrest us. It was only because Stark sided with them like a complete moron that they got cocky and started thinking that they could put a leash on us.”

Steve shook his head, “You don’t mean that. You and Wanda both, you don’t mean it. You’re just upset. We don’t put ourselves above the law, we don’t.”

“What are you smoking Steve?” Clint asked coldly. “We are above the law. Come on Wanda,” he stood up and walked out. After a moment Wanda followed after him.

Scott’s shoulders sagged in relief as she left. “You know, I’m thinking maybe I’ll take my chances at home,” he said to himself.

“You don’t mean that,” Steve repeated to Scott. Scott gave him a strained smile in response.

Natasha put her hand on Steve’s arm, “Zemo was wrong,” she assured him. “We can fix this, fix the Avengers. Spider-Man is a kid and with Rhodes’ injuries the two of them are just going to add to Stark’s guilt complex. Pepper’s never been able to deal with Iron Man and Tony can’t give it up, their engagement is doomed. I’m sure I could talk Wanda into trying to mend fences with Vision and he’ll go, he loves her. Maybe he can even calm her down a little.

“Once Tony’s been isolated he’ll do most of the work to convince himself that he was wrong. He’ll cave. Don’t worry Steve, Tony’s not tough enough to stick to his principles if we’re all against him. He needs the Avengers to feel like he’s worth anything at all. He’ll come crawling back. And Clint- Clint’s angry but- Be too slow to pull him back when he goes after Tony. If his temper gets the better of him Clint will feel bad enough to accept Tony’s apology after that.” Natasha smiled encouragingly. “We can still fix the Avengers. We’re a family.”

_ “Excuse me if I have a little trouble understanding this new morality were looking out for your own; your friends, your family; has been elevated to a cardinal virtue which justifies harming innocent bystanders who just happened to be in your way and places you above the law for all practical purposes.” _

“We aren’t like that,” Steve protested, to the TV, to Natasha, to the empty doorway through which Clint and Wanda had vanished, to Scott standing apart from what was left of the team. He looked to Sam for support but the other man wouldn’t meet his eyes. “We’re not like that,” Steve repeated.

“Steve,” Sam said quietly, “If you see yourself in a man who sold weapons to crooks to keep his family in luxuries…. Well, if Toomes is just like us, then you have to face the fact that maybe that means _we’re_ just like _him_.”


End file.
